In which the writer proposes:

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

At the end of April 2014 a group of public minded citizens
replaced a section of fence around Lost Lake in the Gilpin Grasslands to better
protect the area from off-road vehicles and range cow damage. The new fence was
constructed as fully wildlife friendly fencing.

In spring 2015 Range Branch and Ministry of Forests Lands
and Natural Resources (MFLNRO) and Ministry of Environment, installed signage
and a seating bench at Lost Lake, some six years after their original fence construction.The major message on that signage appears to
have been prompted by the concerns raised in our original Nov 2014 article: see
section on “Waterer Not Activated.”

Incredibly
the major message on the Governments new signage in 2015:

tried to justify the original placement of the fence as bounding existing riparian vegetation.

introduced a long winded and misleading rationale for why there was no water in the waterer.

Regarding
(1) it became apparent over time that the older fence failed to protect
existing riparianvegetation which
showed up outside that fence and also failed to provide any worthwhile setback
from such vegetation. The original fence placement also did not prevent a
throughway for off-road vehicles.The
new wildlife friendly fence installed by public minded citizens in 2014 fixed
those problems.

Regarding
(2) the claim on the new signage blaming the City of Grand Forks for not
providing water for the waterer, is contrary to what was claimed by MFLNRO in
extended conversations with the writerJune
20 2014. See more detail on those discussions in our Nov 2014 article:

Crucially
however, the Government’s claim on the sign, that the City of Grand Forks would
not provide water for the waterer, is according to the City of Grand Forks, not
true.

In
addition to the misleading (or worse) information provided on the sign, the
sign is placed looking down the length of the new fence installed in 2014 by
volunteers. Viewers of the sign might expect that this new wildlife friendly
fence was the work of Government. On the contrary, Range Branch and MFLNRO have
resisted such installations despite public concerns and the advice of the
Forest Practices Board. MFLNRO was in fact engaged in “investigating who was
responsible” for the “unauthorized” new fence while placing this misleading
signage that suggests it is their work.

In
addition to the serial misrepresentations of the signage, it was installed
together with a bench and sign celebrating off-road vehicle usage in the area.
The scars on the land from such activities will be apparent in upcoming
articles. We wonder if those supporting or sponsoring the signage including the
Trails signage are fully aware of the damage done to public land by
range-cattle and off road activities.

youtube video 3.14 min

if your devices and download speed allow, available at up to 1080 HD

Our
November 2014 article on installation of the new wildlife friendly fence:

Quotes

"the human understanding once it has adopted an opinion.....draws all things else to support and agree with it"

"and although there be a greater weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects or despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusion may remain inviolate".Sir Francis Bacon, about 400 years ago

Today psychologists call it "confirmation bias".Knowing its universal reach is to guard against it.

"facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored"

Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays

"it is impossible to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends on him not understanding"Upton Sinclair

"one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen" Aldo Leopold

"experts are often as imprisoned by their beliefs as anyone else"Bob Wiley The Mud Report